


outside her window

by reapingfolk



Category: Peter Pan - Barrie
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-12-23
Updated: 2009-12-23
Packaged: 2017-10-05 01:28:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/36289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reapingfolk/pseuds/reapingfolk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Forever he has waited outside her window and she will never know."</p>
            </blockquote>





	outside her window

Forever he has waited outside her window and she will never know.

In the early days, when she still sat in the warm chair her mother once occupied by the window and waited for him with eager, expectant eyes, he would have to hide in the corners of the shadows - where the light ended, but before the dark began. He would squeeze himself tight in the cracks between two definite decisions and watch her fall asleep night after night in that old chair by the window. Her mother would come in, make sure the boys were snug in their beds (for like the children they were, nearly all of them had forgotten him) and then come over to carry Wendy back over to her own room.

For yes, even Wendy had her own room now.

The day after they all came back from their adventures, Mother, Father, and Nana moved dear Wendy into a separate bedroom. It wasn't to be cruel. It was just that there were too many boys in the household now and the nursery simply had no more room to hold Peter's rapidly growing Wendy. However, that failed to deter the young lady.

Every night, after bedtime, Wendy would sneak back into the nursery, open the window and wait. Peter remembered the look she used to carry, confidant that he would come, her feet ready to jump up and have her announce to the boys that he had finally come to take them away again.

He remembered that look very well. He remembered how, as time went by, that look turned to one of sadness and hopelessness. He remembered the corners of her smiles melting into tears.

Every night Wendy would wait outside the window - until one night she didn't.

One night, as Peter watched with eyes like stars that continually died, Wendy stood up before her mother came to carry her away. She folded up the blanket around her knees and wiped her eyes. As he watched with hands held tight around his back so that he would not be tempted to move, he saw her sigh one last time and close the window.

Maybe it was because the chill of the air made her fingers and her toes too unbearably cold. Or maybe it was because the chair was no longer comfortable and hurt her back.

Or maybe it's something so much simpler.

Maybe it is that even little girls with dreams of pirates and adventures get tired of waiting.

Whatever the reason, Wendy closed her window and from that day, Peter learned to watch directly behind the glass. He no longer had to hide because nobody was looking for him.

Many times, the great Peter Pan wanted to jump in, wanted to save them all, but he couldn't. He had made his choice.

When the twins first forgot his name, Peter was half-tempted to jump in front of them and threaten to stab them with his sword to make them remember. When Michael dropped his brave teddy bear in the mud and forgot all about it, Peter wanted to grab the poor thing and give it to Wendy to clean up.

What made him come closest to revealing himself, however, was when Tootles dropped from the sky. The boys were still getting used to walking and so they flew every now and then to enjoy themselves. Peter could tell something was wrong when Tootles took ten minutes to get into the air. He got into the air and couldn't stop. He didn't remember how to control his own flight.

Then he just stopped.

He dropped and before he knew it, Peter Pan was rushing forwards to catch him. Luckily for Peter, oh so luckily, Mr. Darling was there. He caught Tootles and with a brush, placed him firmly onto the ground.

Peter stopped in his flight and gazed in horror as Mr. Darling advised with good intentions, "Perhaps you shouldn't do that again, son. It's much easier to walk with both feet planted firmly on the ground."

Things just got worse from there.

Perhaps Peter should have stayed in Neverland and not have tortured himself this way, but he could not help it. For, despite everything, they were still his lost boys and she was still his Wendy Moira Angela Darling.

Even when she stopped being Wendy Moira Angela Darling and became Wendy Moira Angela Darling-Young.

Wendy got married in a lovely white dress with a pink sash when she was still young enough to be able to strain to hear the bells of faeries. She married outside, in the park behind a church, with the lost boys and her family sitting in a tidy row in the front seats. It was a nice, quiet wedding and despite what Mr. and Mrs. Darling feared,, there was no young boy to stop the ceremonies.

Of course Peter was there. He forced himself to watch, told himself it was simply another adventure, and situated himself in a tall, leafy branch of a tree so that he could see everything. So that he could see Wendy walking down the aisle towards the man that Hook warned him about: her husband.

He would have stopped the ceremonies. In fact he was planning to.

He didn't though, because he saw something that the others failed to.

When asked whether she would take this man to be her husband, Wendy hesitated. She closed her eyes and for a fraction of a second, the tip of her pink tongue touched the corner of her mouth where her hidden kiss would have been if she hadn't given it away.

It was for a very short time and she agreed afterwards, but Peter Pan saw. He saw and he knew so he kept quiet during the ceremonies.

"I'll let you grow up, Wendy," he had whispered afterwards. "You should have what you want for now."

Because Peter Pan had all the time in the world, he knew he could wait.

And indeed he did.

He waited as Wendy brought her first child home, a Darling-Young girl by the name of Jane. He waited as her husband died with Wendy holding his hand beside his bed. He waited as Wendy moved out of her house and into her old home to take care of her parents.

He waited until it was only Wendy left before he saw her again.

Outside Wendy's window, Peter Pan watched her eyes close for the last time in the old nursery bed she once dreamed in. He gently flew into the window, glided onto her bed, and began to cry.

He finally mourned the ones he lost.

And then he heard it, as though nothing had changed, as though years were like seasons, due to change to a young boy's whim.

He heard, "Boy, why are you crying?" and turning around, he saw her there, Wendy, twelve years old and in a nightgown.

"Peter?" asked she with a tilt of her head.

"Yes," he murmured as he started to float up over her with his knuckles on his waist. "I've let you grown up, Wendy. Now, you have to come back to Neverland."

"Oh," gasped Wendy. "Of course. Will John and Michael and Tootles and Nibs and - "

"They are all there, Wendy, and you can be to - unless, unless you want to go to where your husband has gone."

He backed away with suspicion on his forever-young face.

Wendy moved forward with a smile.

She held out her hands.

"Oh no, Peter," said she as they stood on the platform of her window and made to fly away. "I would much rather have an adventure instead."

**Author's Note:**

> if ya'll are about that tumblr life, i'm [noepithets](http://noepithets.tumblr.com).


End file.
